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Increase Clipboard’s Memory

BY STANLEY ZAROWIN

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Q. I read that the latest
version of Microsoft Word contains a very sophisticated
Clipboard that allows users to copy many
different parts of a document and then selectively paste them
into another document. I wish I could do that with my older
version of Word, in which I can make only one selection for the
Clipboard . Do I have to upgrade to get that
one feature or do you know some way to do it in my old version?

A. You’re lucky.
There is a way, and I must confess I learned of it only after I
upgraded because I, too, had wished I could make multiple
selections in Clipboard .

Before showing
you the trick, let me demonstrate how it works in Word 2000
and later, and maybe you will want to upgrade.

For illustration, I copied the
first few words of your question by highlighting them,
pressing Ctrl+C and then doing the same thing several more
times with a few more words.

After the second Ctrl+C,
the Clipboard popped up on the right side of
my screen with the copied words; and each subsequent group of
copied words kept being added to that list (see left).

When you’re ready to copy a selection to a different part
of your document or a new document, all you have to do is
click on a selection and it gets copied to the last place you
put your cursor. You have to agree that’s pretty neat.

Now, if you still aren’t convinced the super
Clipboard is worth the upgrade, here’s the
trick for doing almost, but not quite, the same thing in
earlier versions of Word. The function is called the
Spike—named after the old-fashioned paper holder. But like the
Spike and unlike the upgraded Clipboard , the
words you gather are not copied ; instead, they are
cut and then pasted into your target
document.

To launch the Spike, begin by highlighting
each snippet of text you want to cut and paste and press
Ctrl+F3 after each selection. You can do that up to 12 times,
and Word will hold all your selections in memory; but it will
not display the contents as you go along as does the upgraded
Clipboard .

When you are ready to
paste the information into another document, press
Ctrl+Shift+F3, and all the accumulated information—not just
the first or last selected snippet in the Spike—will be pasted
in the document at the point where your cursor is situated.

However, that action also will erase everything in the
Spike. If you want to retain the contents in the Spike for
multiple pastings, type the word spike and then press F3.

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